Investigation of Composition in Nano-Scaled Self-Assembled SiGe Islands

A modified model is proposed to explain the influence of Si concentration on shape transition of self-assembled SiGe islands on Si substrates. The experimental results show that the critical sizes for shape transition from pyramids to domes (44, 50 and 60nm) increase with the increasing Si concentration (0.032, 0.09 and 0.17) from sample A to C. Based on the proposed model, the quantitative relation between the Si concentration and the critical size is established. Then the composition exactly in nano-scaled self-assembled SiGe islands is calculated from the measured critical size. The result shows that the Si concentration deduced from Raman spectrum is much larger than the actual values. It is demonstrated that the quantitative relation we obtained can be used to investigate the composition in nano-scaled SiGe islands.